A Little Birdie Told Me
by JustALilSnail
Summary: A talking bird ruined his life by confessing his crush out for the whole world to hear. The plus side? There's no plus side. There's no plus side at all to this horrible, horrible situation.
1. Chapter 1

**This fic is dedicated to you, Junebug (a guest)! (a child who literally clicked on a fanfic that definitely does not contain Solangelo to complain why Solangelo is not together in the fic!)**

**I love concrit. And I appreciate everyone who reviews my story whether its positive or negative feedback. But crying why Solangelo is not in a Willvis fanfiction (especially when Nico wasn't tagged) is not concrit lol. Solangelo has thousands of fanfics. Use the 5 seconds you used to cry in mine to compliment a solangelo fic, ya salty potato.**

**Update 5/13/19: thanks for apologizing and I'm sorry for being rude. Just... don't ever say something like that to a noncanon shipfic. **

**_Relationship: Will/Travis_**

**_And to be very clear, this is not a solangelo fic. They are not together in this fic. They never dated in this fic. And they will not be together at all in this fic. Endgame is Willvis. _**

**_Tags: forced confession, Not canon with Trials of Apollo (obviously), blood, hurt/comfort,_**

* * *

"Shit! You took that hit pretty hard! You okay?"

Travis Stoll — son of Hermes, co-counselor of Hermes cabin, an absolute madman when it comes to pranks — is totally in love with one medic from the Apollo cabin by the name of Will Solace.

"... Travis? You okay?"

Will Solace has the nicest blue eyes. The most perfectly unkempt, yet still stylish blond hair. Possibly the kindest person on camp. Definitely the best medic on camp. Can probably alleviate the head splitting headache he's experiencing right now.

"Travis…Travis…? Can you hear me?"

He's also nosy beyond belief. Can't shoot an arrow to save his life. Really can't leave an issue alone if it catches his interest.

"Nico, give me the nectar."

Travis feels a hand slip behind his head and lifts him up. A bottle is pressed to his lips, a liquid trickling pass his lips and down his throat. Warmth floods his body and the pain jackhammering into the side of his temple dissipates.

Travis opens his eyes, groaning as the unholy light assaults his poor eyes.

"Ugh. Will? Nico?" he mumbles, squinting up at the shady forms at what he assumes to be his two other questmates. "What happened? Why does my head hurt so much?"

"You unlocked the front door with your powers. You didn't listen to us saying it's probably booby-trapped. You ignored our warnings to not enter. You didn't check both directions before entering. You got bonked in the head with a sledgehammer and you fell down," Nico states matter of factly.

Beside him, Will passes the water bottle of nectar back to Nico. The hand remains though and Travis has to admit that Will's fingers against his scalp feel really nice. "You're lucky you didn't die. Any head injuries are dangerous."

Travis closes his eyes and grins. "But I didn't."

"You should be more careful."

"Okay."

"I feel like you won't."

"No, I'll will. But I'll definitely forget in a minute or two."

Will sighs and the hand in the back of his head slide down to his middle back as Will helps Travis upright. And he stands, stretching and popping the cracks in his neck. He stares at the front door of the Victorian Mansion they're standing before. This mansion sure sticks out like a sore thumb from the modern Los Angeles apartments. But not a single Los Angelean look their way. The power of the Mist really is something.

Travis stretches his arms. "Alright now that we're all fine, let's go get that bird!"

A couple of days ago, Aphrodite sent camp a message to retrieve her pet bird. Apparently, she's still fooling around with Ares and Hephaestus is not a happy husband. With the help of Hermes, Hephaestus stole Aphrodite's bird and locked it away somewhere in the states. Cue Aphrodite wanting demigods to retrieve her pet. Cue someone going to Rachel for a prophecy. Cue Rachel stating a griffin, a serpent, and a tortoise are needed for a possibly successful quest. And cue them traveling across the country to where they are right now, where they found the mansion, where he opened the locked door with his freaky-deaky powers, and where a hammer hit him in the head from the side.

The 3 day trip from Camp Half-Blood to Los Angeles was quite an adventure. He never quested with a Big Three before and the number of monsters that came after them was not fun. Good thing he and Nico are decent fighters and Will is… well, Travis wouldn't say a decent fighter. He wouldn't even say an OK fighter. He would say Will is an awful fighter.

Which is why Nico enters the mansion first to lead the front, Will follows, and Travis guards them from the behind.

The way they line up like this, him watching Will's back and Will watching Nico's is a great coincidence considering he has a massive crush on Will Solace. And Will Solace has a colossal crush on Nico di Angelo. And Nico di Angelo has a mammoth crush on Will Solace.

At least that's how it seems to Travis.

Connor says he isn't really the best at detecting romantic interests, but come on. Anyone with eyeballs could see that Nico feels something for Will and Will hangs out with Nico more than anyone.

Is he going to compete with Nico?

Absolutely not.

Because not only can the kid beat him up with probably little to no effort, Nico deserves to find happiness after all the sludge he been through. Tartarus, camp's weird avoidance of him, his unrequited crush for Percy, losing his sister. The kid deserves a break.

Which is why he been giving them a lot of alone time to talk throughout this whole trip. He hopes they're talking because the alone time for him is very boring. There is seriously nothing to entertain him. He can't prank himself, because there's no shock value. He can't prank other people because it draws too much attention to them. He can't IM Connor because he is poor. And pickpocketing bystanders, he realizes after the first time, becomes a dangerous game of 'are my fingertips grazing against a phone or a wallet?'

Having an unintentional monster magnet and one incapable of defending himself is not good for anyone's wellbeing.

So Travis was really bored those three days.

Really, really bored.

Lucky for him, Will was adamant about making sure all his teammates are accounted for so he gets distractions every hour or so.

Inside the mansion, everything is very fancy like all mansions are. Oriental furniture. Tall ceilings. Detailed, old paintings and vases. All very nice. And all probably worth a lot in a pawn shop. Dude, the amount of cash he'll make just by selling one is making him drool and judging by the high layer of dust on the furniture, no one will notice it's disappearance.

"Travis, if you're thinking about stealing these—" Will starts all of the sudden and Travis jerks, head flying back up front to find Will staring disapprovingly at him over the shoulder and Nico still facing forward.

Travis smirks, feigning hurt. "I'm insulted, Will. I'm not thinking about stealing. I'm definitely going to steal."

"Travis, I swear on my Father's harp, if you take something from here and end up pissing off Hephaestus and making him send automatons after us, I won't hesitate to feed you to the robots."

"I'm sure you will," Travis says.

The way Will wrinkle his nose is cute. "I really will."

"Sure, I'll believe you."

"I'll really do it."

"Uh huh."

"Don't test me."

"Okay."

"I'm going to hold your hand to make sure you don't steal."

"Alri— wait what?" When Will actually slips his hand into his, Travis literally feels his soul transcend the mortal plane and go to Elysium for a sip of the sweetest honey. And when he intertwines their fingers together? See, this is why he can't kick this crush he has for Will to the curb.

Lucky for him, he's incredibly awesome at keeping a straight face. "Jokes on you. I'm ambidextrous. I can steal with both hands."

For a second, Will stares at him from over his shoulder with pensive eyes. "You don't have a bag on you."

"A good thief doesn't need a bag to carry their loot."

"Will you two focus? I can hear the bird," Nico snaps.

Sure enough, Nico's right. He could hear cooing. It's a dove's coo and Travis remembers one of Aphrodite's sacred animals are doves. It's coming from further in the mansion and they fall back in line.

They dodge a couple of booby traps here and there, avoided pitfalls a couple of times, run from a boulder one time too. Avoiding all these traps feels a lot like an Indiana Jones movie. Maybe that's where Hephaestus draws his inspiration from.

They stop in front of an unassuming door where the cooing is the loudest. He goes to open it but Will pulls him back by the shoulders, shaking his head.

"It's booby-trapped," he says.

For 10 minutes, Nico and Will argue about how to open it because they're positive it's booby-trapped. And after 15 minutes of watching them argue like old married couples, Travis goes ahead and opens it, disregarding their simultaneous cries that it's booby trapped.

Is it booby-trapped? Yes, absolutely. Did he got hurt? Of course, he did. Is it a bad injury? Thank the Gods it is not! Did he cry? Yes, he did. A little bit. A dagger embedding itself into the back of his hand is a good enough reason to cry, right? But the door is unlocked and no longer booby-trapped! Which is all that matters, because Travis just wants to finish the quest and not watch his crush flirt with his crush.

At least at camp, he's not required to standby. He can go whine to Connor.

"Travis, your hand!"

"What the hell were you thinking, Stoll!?"

Thinking? He was not thinking. He was too busy doing to be thinking.

Will pulls him aside to fix his hand, snagging the nectar bottle from Nico, while Nico went ahead to secure the bird. They sit on the floor, back pressing against the wall.

"You're too impulsive," Will scolds as Travis sips from the bottle, the taste of Connor's homemade chocolate chips flooding his mouth.

"Impulsivity is my middle name," he says but Will is not amused.

"Why are you being so reckless? You're never this reckless."

"Ah…" Travis looks away. He guesses spending all these years together as yearrounders are bound to make Will notice if he's off. "I'm just anxious to get back. Connor and I have a big prank set up and—"

"Travis," Will sighs.

You can't lie to me. Not when my dad is the God of Truth.

Travis bites his lip to hide his smile. Complete honesty. Nothing can pass Will's radar. But he has a similar power. He knows the mechanics. There are ways to get around it.

"I'm just distracted. I got a lot on mind."

"...like…"

At Will's prompt and raised eyebrow, Travis continues, "I have a crush on someone in camp. He's totally—"

But then Will's coughing and shaking him hard by the shoulder with eyes wide and disbelieving. "You have a crush? You actually have a crush on a real, living person!?"

"Why is that so surprising?" Travis says defensively.

"Because! For all the years I have known you, you never showed any interest towards anyone. I thought you were aroace… or at least pranking-sexual."

"What does that even mean?"

"A person who's sexually attracted to pranks. But who even cares about that, tell me about the person you like! What's his name? Which cabin? Do I know him? Who is he? How nice is he?"

Travis leans away from the barrage of questions. It's so weird to see Will asking such in-depth questions. But then again he has always been a nosy person, so Travis did not question it too much.

"It doesn't even matter if I tell you, he'll probably won't reciprocate my feelings."

Okay wow, he always thinks about it but saying it out loud hurts more than he thought it would.

Will's lips twitch upwards for a fraction of a millisecond before his brows furrow. "Really? Why?"

That reaction was really strange. Is Will actually happy he'll never find true love? Tucking the fact into the back of his mind, he confesses, "He has a crush on someone else."

"Oh." And again Travis sees that millisecond smile before it's squashed by a musing look. Is Will really happy to see him pine over someone he can't have? Seriously?

"He told you he likes someone else?" Will asks.

"No, I just assumed."

Will frowns. "Travis, I say this with the kindest heart but you're not… exactly… the best at detecting romantic intentions. Austin and Kayla were hitting on you for the better half of the summer and you had no clue."

Travis blinks several times. "Kayla and Austin were doing what?"

"Flirting with you."

"They were?"

Will snortles and shakes his head. "Yes, they were."

Really? But all they did that summer was ask for more one on one training sessions which he gave without question.

That's flirting? Is Will absolutely sure that was what was going on?

"I would ask your crush out," Will says, not quite looking at him, "Maybe you were wrong."

Travis leans forward to get a better look at Will's face. "You sound kinda weird just now. You okay?"

And again in a millisecond, Will's face twist into a grimace, but it's shadowed over by a bright smile. "I am happy. I'm just a bit worried. A lot of people would find your, ah, abilities helpful in getting by with life."

Travis blinks. His abilities? What do his powers have to do with anything?

Will shakes his head and gives a beaming smile. "Forget I said anything. Who's your c—"

"Agh, damn it! Get down here!"

And there's a heavy crash inside where Nico is. Travis shares a look with Will before they both head inside.

The bird room is wonderfully done. Large. Spacious. Tons of flying room and perching sites. A bird paradise. Which he guess isn't good for them because the dove refuses to leave from the highest perch.

Nico huffs in frustration.

"It won't come down," Nico says to the duo entering the room. "I tried shadow traveling to where it is—"

"What?! Nico, you shouldn't be—"

"But it flies away each time. I can't use the net, it's too short and there are no barriers I can use to cage it in."

Travis stares at the dove. It's good-looking, white feathers dusted with the faintest of brown on their wingtips. It doesn't look special though and it certainly doesn't look magical. He wonders if they're even looking at the right bird. Doesn't Aphrodite like flair? But whatever.

Travis whistles. The dove cocks its head.

"Ms. Fluffy, come here," he coos.

Behind him, Nico whispers to Will, "It has a name?"

Probably yes. But it's probably not Ms. Fluffy.

Ms. Fluffy didn't move. Travis digs into his pocket for the sunflower seeds he snagged from a vendor pitside back in Colorado. He rattles it in his hands and smirks when Ms. Fluffy perks with interest. Got her.

"Do you want some delicious — woah!"

Faster than what should be possible for a bird Ms. Fluffy dives towards him and perches on the meaty part of his hand, pecking with a frenzy. Poor thing. She must have been hungry.

Travis turns around and smiles at his two companions, scratching the nape. "Bird is secured. Now let's go back to camp."

"Good going, Travis," Will says and Travis beams, warmth flooding his insides.

"Dad is the god of animal welfare. So naturally, I'm attuned with all animals and their needs," he boasts, but then he thinks about Nico and Percy and Jason and Will and oof, his powers really do not sound impressive compared to Nico's shadow travel or Will's healing hymns.

Then a voice, high and melodious, a voice that's definitely not his, not Will's, not Nico's, rings out in crystal clarity in the spacious bird room,

"I love poptarts."

Travis stares down at Ms. Fluffy, watches her finish the last sunflower seeds, and preens her feathers. She chirps and looks at him. A claw taps his palm like she's asking for more.

"I wasn't imagining it right? She talked?" Travis says hesitantly.

Will and Nico nod.

Okay, so he wasn't going crazy. Ms. Fluffy talked. Ms. Fluffy can talk. Holy shit and he brought Ms. Fluffy up to eye level.

"What's your real name?" he asks eagerly.

Ms. Fluffy only coos.

"Can I keep calling you Ms. Fluffy?"

More cooing.

"I love poptarts too. What other food do you like?"

Nothing but coos.

Will chuckles. "I can't believe you're trying to find similarities with a bird, Travis. That's really dumb."

Travis blows a raspberry. "Hey, Ms. Fluffy, you think Will is mean too don't you?"

No support from the dove. Maybe what happened was a one-time occurrence. Which is very, very sad. He wanted a talking bird to annoy Nico and Will on their way home.

He raises his hand to his shoulder and Ms. Fluffy hops over without a fuss and he strides back over to Nico and Will.

"So now we're—"

"I love cheeseburgers."

Travis's eyes widen in exhilaration and he points at Ms. Fluffy with elation.

A talking bird! It's really a talking bird! he mouths.

Nico rolls his eyes.

"We're going to head back to camp now. The easiest way would be me shadowing traveling all three of us back."

"Which I forbid," Will says.

"Right, which is why our next quickest option would be to go to Camp Jupiter then go back to camp by griffin."

"I love Antman."

"Holy macaroni. This is the best bird ever. Antman is the best avenger! Say you like Scott Lang."

"I love pranks."

"That's not Scott Lang. But whatever, I love pranks too!"

"Travis, we need to focus," Nico starts, but Ms. Fluffy coos and pecks his head with her beak and Travis gives in, reaching for more sunflower seeds to hand her.

"You're such a princess."

"I love dad."

Wait, magical birds have dads? He always thought they sprout from a god's calf or innards. You know, like how most animals come to be according to the myths.

Will narrows his eyes. "Travis, I don't think —"

"I love Camp Half Blood."

Nico frowns he takes a step towards them and Ms. Fluffy freaks out, wings fluffing up.

"The bird isn't—"

"I love Connor."

His heart stops.

There's no way Ms. Fluffy knows Connor. No way at all.

She isn't saying what she loves.

She's saying what he—

"I love Will."

And Travis runs for the exit, taking great effort to not look at anything other than the door.

* * *

"I run from my problems. It's what I do."

"I love Chiron."

"I mean running from your problem isn't the worst thing ever, right?"

"I love Summer."

"I think I'm going to live here for the rest of my life."

"I love magic."

For maybe… 10 or 15 minutes, Travis just walks and talks with Ms. Fluffy. Maybe if he just walks long enough and far enough, he can get away from the fact that a bird — a freaking bird — ruin his life. But then, Travis skids to a stop and looks around. Really looks around. Nothing looks familiar. The hallway he's in. The fancy doors. The paintings of old people. None of it he recognizes. Which means he's in new territory. Which means he's in booby-trap land.

Crap.

Will and Nico handled all the booby traps.

"Ms. Fluffy, do you know the way out?"

Complete silence from the bird.

Typical.

Ruin his life and be unhelpful.

"Alright Ms. Fluffy, we're in trouble here. I am horrible at detecting booby traps. I'm actually really bad at setting traps up too. Connor does all that. I kinda just cheer him on from the sidelines. You're supposed to be returned safe and sound otherwise Aphrodite is going to have Will's and Nico's head. Do you understand?"

Ms. Fluffy coos once.

He's going to assume she understands.

"It's very important you don't get hurt, okay?"

"I love blue."

"Alright, we're on the same page."

Travis hands Ms. Fluffy some more sunflower seeds to keep her occupied. He's going to need all his focus to find his way out.

He thinks that, but one step forward and he falls into a pitfall trap. There is literally no way he can make this up.

One step and kaplump into the 30 feet hole.

Was it filled with spikes like what you see in Indiana Jones? Heck yeah, it was. Well, Partially. Only half of the 6"x6" pit is layered with metal spikes. Was he lucky enough to land in a spike-free zone? Heck no he was not.

He kicks his feet uselessly, praying he'll kick the wall and it'll launch him to the spike free zone but nope, he falls straight down into the pit, hit the spike-free ground right buttock first while his right calf is speared by the barbed spike.

And. Ho. Ly. Applesticks. It hurts. It hurts so freaking much.

Being stabbed through the calf clear through to the other side hurts and once he gets out of here, he's going to have a very serious talk with this mansion's architect. Partly to cry about how it's awful and partly to ask how he made such incredible traps. It's very impressive and if he wasn't in so much pain, he would admire the outstanding setup. He knows Connor would appreciate it.

He squeezes his eyes shut, very pointedly not looking at the wound. He doesn't want to see how bad it is. He doesn't need to know how bad it is.

Ms. Fluffy cries above him, perch on where the floor caves. She flaps her wings furiously and her nails clack on the linoleum.

"Ms. Fluffy, you okay?"

And she responds by flying away. Just completely deserted him.

"Wait! Ms. Fluffy, come back! It's dangerous out there. Ms. Fluffy! I have more sunflower seeds," he cries.

Ms. Fluffy did not come back no matter how much he rattles the seed in his hands. He tries to toss the seeds up but cheesesticks, it hurts so much to move his leg. Even just bending forward sends a mind-breaking wave of pain through his body and upstarts his desire to vomit.

He sits there not moving, not breathing, for maybe a good five minutes, just wishing the pain will go away.

Maybe the pain will go away if he just keeps very, very still.

His head buzzes.

Is he going into shock?

He has nectar and ambrosia on him. This is something he can mend.

But to fix it, he needs to pull his calf free of the spike which… frankly… at this moment… sounds like a really, really painful thing to do and the angle he's in right now… Gods, this sounds impossible

But he gotta.

He gotta get out of here. Go get Ms. Fluffy. Make sure Ms. Fluffy make it back to Aphrodite. And then leave the country and forever hide from Will till the end of time.

So he readies himself, pushes himself up with a trembling hand, takes a deep breath, make his leg go as limp as possible, loop his hands over both sides of his calf (oh gods, oh gods, oh gods, why did he decide to wear khakis? It looks so gross. It looks so bad. Oh Gods) and …

and…

5… 4… 3, 2, 1 …

He's ready now…

Almost ready…

Almost time to do it…

Just…

Needs…

A few… more… seconds… to ready himself.

Who is he kidding? He can't do it. And he lies back down on the surprisingly clean floor. He's going to die here in this nice, old pit.

Time to write his will and hope somebody will check the pits sometime in this century, he guesses.

"Travis?"

Oh no.

"Travis? You here?"

Please no.

Travis reluctantly raises his head to the surface but he didn't see Will's sweet blue eyes nor his gorgeous sun-blond hair.

"Ms. Fluffy, I don't have time for sightseeing. I need to find Travis. Gods probably know he got into a trap or something."

Maybe if he just stays very quiet, Will will pass by him and he can go back to whimpering in pain in silence. But then Ms. Fluffy's head pops over the surface and Will's head follows close behind.

"Travis? Is that you?"

And he waves weakly. "Will… hey… how you been?"

"Travis, hold on. I'm coming." Will disappear from the surface. The next minute, a bundle of rope falls into the pit and Will is flying into the pit like a majestic angel.

A majestic angel that is 1 second away from blowing a gasket.

Dude, if Connor can see how red Will is getting… they'll be making jokes about how he's a tomato.

"Travis? We have been looking everywhere for — what… the holy fuck."

Oof, Will does not look happy. He better do damage control and … well… none of this looks good. Damage control is not going to be successful. But still, he got up to his elbows and flashes a smile. "What's up? How's your day going?"

Will didn't respond to that.

He strides up to him, looks at his leg, kneels beside him, and scowls. "What happened?"

"I fell," he admits.

"Are you hurt anywhere else?"

"I don't think so."

"Good."

And Will lightly swipes him on the back of the head. "You idiot! What were you thinking running away like that? We were so worried."

"I panicked. You know how I am when I panic," he says defensively.

Will is about to say something but Ms. Fluffy flies down into the pit and lands on his shoulder. Will fixes his famous 'do-as-I-say' glare at the magic bird. "Go get Nico. He's searching the east wing of the mansion."

But Ms. Fluffy did not listen and preens her feathers.

"I love studying."

"Ms. Fluffy, please."

"I love Steak."

"So, um, I guess Ms. Fluffy says whoever the ones she's touching loves," Travis says, not looking at Will. Studying. Steak. That's Will's favorite things. Not his.

Will pushes Ms. Fluffy off his shoulder. But Ms. Fluffy is incredibly persistent and perches in Will's blond strands instead.

"I love brown."

Will grumbles some very not nice sayings to the bird.

Travis would have laughs but fingers press against his thigh and he yelps. His leg jostles and a fresh wave of pain courses through his system.

Will winces and mumbles an apology.

"I'm going to paralyze your lower half so you won't feel a thing."

Travis nods, letting his face rest against the floor again as Will sings a hymn. Has he ever said how Will's singing voice is like an angel's? Melodic, silvery, sweet.

The excruciating pain immediately disappears and Travis watches his legs go limp.

"I'll fix this in a jiffy. Don't worry." Then Will is snapping on gloves he pulls from who knows where.

"I love people."

"Ms. Fluffy, please be quiet," Will says with gritted teeth.

"I love Antman."

"You like Antman, too? Dude, you should have told me sooner. Wecan watch his movies together," Travis says faintly.

Will did not respond to his sentence and he winces.

There's tension in Will's body. An awkward silence falls between them. And being the impulsive, silence-hating idiot he is, he opens his big mouth and says, "So you like brown. Any reason why? It's not the most popular color out there."

Will's jaw clenches and Travis shrinks.

Will hates him now. He hates him and their relationship is now ruined and they're no longer friends and this really is the worst day of his life.

Travis is refusing to look at his wound. And he can't exactly stare at Will. So all that's left to look at are the other metal spikes filling the pit they're in. They all stand at an impressive foot off the ground. And they all are 2 inches wide. And they all have this brown crusting at the barbs that he is pretty sure is rust.

Gods, he hopes the one impaled through his calf is a 4 inch long, 1 inch wide, rust-free spike. He can hope, right?

"I love mint chocolate chip ice cream."

Ms. Fluffy chirps. She looks so content and happy. The dumb bird probably didn't realize she ruined his life.

"Done. Here."

A piece of Ambrosia is shoved into his hands and Travis slowly brings it to his mouth to nibble on with his cheek still presses against the floor The buzz in his head moves to his chest. He feels abnormally warm. Is this normal? He should feel better by now, right? Or is he doing something wrong? Maybe he should ask Will.

Who is very intently staring right at him.

Cheesesticks. His eyes shoot back to the spikes.

One second of silence. Two seconds. Three seconds. Four. Five.

"So… mint chocolate chip ice cream huh?"

Will still isn't saying anything.

He swallows. Rejection he can deal with pretty easily. But cutting a relationship off completely, he can't. Time to grow the pair Connor's always telling him and just go for it.

"... hey, are you weirded out by what Ms. Fluffy said earlier? Look, Will, I… if you just want to remind friends, I'm okay with that. Nothing has to change. I was never going to try anything."

"... really?"

Travis fiddles with the quarter square of the ambrosia he still hasn't finished, not daring to look up.

"Yeah, really. I know you have a crush on Nico so I wasn't going to make things awkward between us."

Will sighs and Travis curls in on himself, his blabbermouth ramming on at full speed.

"But I mean if you are grossed out by me liking you, I can also just move to San Francisco. I have been planning to do it since 5 minutes ago. I have a rock solid plan that consists of me doing magic tricks. I love magic tricks do you know that?"

"Travis."

But he blares on right ahead. "I have my whole act figured out. A little sleight of hand, a little … well, all I know is sleight of hand stuff."

"Travis!" And Will cups his cheeks forcibly and raises his head up so they stare eye to eye, him above and he below, which by the way, is way too intimate for Travis. Oh gods, he hopes his cheeks aren't red. It probably is red. His face feels like it's on fire. Dad, please save him from this situation by zapping him out of consciousness.

"I love blue."

"I'm going to need you to listen to me," Will says, "Look at me."

Reluctantly, Travis tears his eyes from the suddenly intriguing spikes to meet Will's unwavering blue eyes.

"Do you remember Connor saying you're shit awful at seeing romantic cues?"

He pouts. "Of course I remember. He says it almost every day."

Will nods. "Connor's right. You're really bad."

"Like I didn't already know that," he grumbles and his eyes drift off to the side, but Will squeezes his hands together and Travis's eyes went back to Will.

"I've been flirting with you this past year and not once have you reacted to anything I said or did. I thought you weren't interested."

… eh?

"I was so bummed. Then Kayla and Austin thought they would help by trying to figure out your orientation, but again you never reacted to anything."

… … huh?

"So we all thought you were asexual aromatic since you never dated, never talk about a significant other, never even hinted at liking anybody. Connor refused to tell us anything too."

… … … wha?

"But I guess you're just an oblivious idiot."

… … … … wait…

"So I'm going to make this clear for you like I should have from the beginning. Travis, I l—

"I love Travis."

* * *

**_I have nothing against Solangelo. I just have a thing for extreme, too-into-the-ship shippers. _**


	2. Chapter 2

**Prompt from a Tumblr post: Not-Doing-Too-Good Sentence Starters**

**[Don't stand up yet]**

Don't stand up yet," Will says, kneeling by Travis's side. He presses Travis back by the shoulders.

Travis, for what's it worth, listen with only a soft groan as a complaint but Will is pretty sure that's because he's still too dazed to disobey.

"He's worse than me," Nico remarks with a hint of disbelief in his voice, sitting cross-legged on the other side of Travis, like he can't believe someone could be just as recklessly careless with his health.

_No one is worse than you_. Will is about to say, but he bites his cheeks.

Yeah, Travis tends to get into a whole lot of… mess. It's normal for him to be overtaken with an impulse to snatch an item from a vendor stand or reach into a purse. It already happened a few times and a consequence of that was running from the cops. But they were all minor offenses.

Travis is actually getting _hurt_ this time around. Will actually needs to use nectar to treat his wounds when before it's just little scratches and mild bruising. He's gonna hit his godly food limit pretty soon if this keeps going. There's maybe 5 ounces left before there's going to be side effects.

Will has his powers yeah but they're kind of like a last resort. If he uses his power, he'll be out of commission for a few hours depending on the wound and if someone becomes injured again… then…

It's not a good scenario.

Travis groans, rolling onto his side towards him. His eyes flutter open. His stomach tingles when Travis rubs a hand over his eye. He should be angry. Pickpocketing is bad. But _how dare Travis be so adorable waking up?_

"Will? Nico? What happened?" Travis says, pushing his upper body upright.

"You tell him," Nico says and turns away to look over the semi-full parking lot they're in.

Will has this whole speech prepared but when Travis fix his (admittedly very good looking) blue eyes at him, everything short circuited and all he could think about is how Travis's eyes are a nice ocean blue. Luckily for him though his mouth works even without his brain.

"A cyclops hit you in the chest with a mallet."

"Oh." Travis touches his chest with his fingertips. "I'm surprised I'm not dead."

Nico snorts. "Yeah, same here. You need to be more careful."

Travis blows a raspberry at the son of Hades. "I want to hear that from the world's best medic."

And by reflex, Will says, "You need to be more careful."

Then he process Travis's words and there's a warm buzzing in his heart. _Best… medic… best… _

He couldn't dwell on it for long though because Travis whirls to face him with fake hurt on his face. "Will, how could you? You're supposed to take my side. We were supposed to gang up on Nico like we planned."

"When did we ever plan that?"

"Back in Rachel's cave."

"I don't remember having any conversation about that."

"Imagine we did then."

Nico coughs.

"The mission, guys. We need to focus."

The mission.

The darn fucking mansion.

Will is pretty sure there is no missing pet and this is just Aphrodite having fun watching him suffer.

See, he has a crush on Travis.

He doesn't know when it started.

Maybe it was when they were both 10 and Travis tried to prank him but they were both caught in it and stay caught for three hours and rather than shame, Travis laughs it off.

Maybe it was when they were 11 and Travis had a Spongebob phase where all his pranks had to be spongebob related.

Maybe it was when they were 12 and Travis traded his Spongebob phase for Naruto.

Maybe it was when Luke left but Travis stayed.

Maybe it was when Travis still held his head high even as Luke cause hell again and again

Maybe it was when Lee died and he fell apart and Travis made him hot chocolate.

Maybe it was when Michael died and he really fell apart and Travis stole ice cream for him from the Camp store he later paid back.

All he knows is that he likes Travis.

And because he's close knit with his cabin, he told them. And they told him to flirt. So he did. And through the power of observation, he determined Travis does not like him back.

An unrequited crush.

The one thing Aphrodite loves most.

So, no, Will is pretty sure there's no missing bird and this is Aphrodite just having fun.

Still, Will played along as Nico led them first to Upper State New York in the Prius Chiron so generously lended. Hephaestus had a mansion up there he uses as a storage unit. They broke in (Travis broke in), did some recon, and found that Hephaestus have three more mansions. One in Oregon. One in Washington. And one in California. All three are on the west coast.

At that point, Will would have called it quits and tell his companions that this whole quest is a sham but then Travis had to go and said, "Alright! A clue! Let's go but we have to stop by the Golden Gate bridge first," with a stupid adorable grin.

It's funny how quickly he gave in.

They took the Prius and drove off. He and Nico switch off being the drivers every second hour or so. It's them two that stuck to the shotgun seats while Travis remains in the back. Worriedly, Travis slept for most of the ride and only woke up for pit stops. Travis assured them he's fine. That he gets really sleepy in cars. Which is a big lie judging by the pinching in his stomach, but no matter how much he pestered, Travis did not give them the honest answer.

After nearly two days of unforgiving driving, they reached Washington.

Only to discover the pet wasn't there.

(Surprise, surprise.)

Then on the way to Oregon, they lost their Prius to a monster and had to hitchhike to the mansion which! Also! Did not! have the bird.

So now they're off to California on this pointless trip. (South California to be exact. Why couldn't it have been North California?)

They hitchhike most of the way there, banking on people's generosity. Sometimes the hitchridee is super nice. Sometimes they're super creepy. Sometimes they are cyclops but they're dealt rather quickly. Sometimes they're not dealt so quickly. Sometimes things go very, very wrong. Sometimes monsters notice that he's not really fighting savvy. Sometimes that really screwed him up.

Sometimes it means he needs to be protected.

Which is how Travis got hit in the chest with a mallet.

Guilt gnaws on his heart. It's always been this way. Lee and Michael used to watch out for him. And after their passing, the responsibility seem to pass to Travis and Connor. It's annoying to be honest and he's going to prove himself one of these days that he's capable.

But back to the mission. He is pretty sure the mission is a dud.

Nico twirls his dagger in his hand. "We're almost there. One more hour and we should be in the general vicinity."

"Let me hotwire a car," Travis says with a wide smirk. "It'll be safer, faster, funner."

"And who's going to return the car once we're done, huh?" Will says exasperated.

"We just tell a friendly policeman we found the missing car and leave it there,"

"Travis, that's a horrible—"

"It's a great idea. Let's do it," Nico interrupts.

"Nico, what—"

But Nico isn't having any of it, standing and already heading towards a silver Toyata. He says over his shoulder, "It's better than risking your life to stay virtuous."

Travis stands, flashes a triumphant grin, before running after Nico.

Flash forward, they found a car. The drove it to Los Angeles and after 5 close car crashes because Los Angelean drivers are _fucking mean (_not that New York drivers are any better…_)_, they ditched the car to walk the rest of the way to the biggest mansion of the three units.

To where yet again Travis got hurt. This time by a sledgehammer.

3.5 ounces of nectar left.

_You tell him this time,_ he mouths to Nico when Travis asks what happened.

He gives a mini spiel about caution that he _knows _Travis won't heed.

Travis stands and stretches and fuck. Will avert his eyes. Travis is all lean muscles and Will unfortunately have a thing for leanness. He wonders if Travis knows how handsome he is. Maybe he does and does this to torment him.

Nico heads inside the mansion and Will follows after him with Travis closing the behind.

Travis is a talker.

He talks during meetings. He talks during dinner. He talks even during movies much to everyone's annoyance. But it's just one of the many endearing traits Travis have.

So when he isn't talking then it means three things. Either one, he's asleep. Two, danger is present. Or three, he's thinking about stealing.

Will looks over his shoulder to see Travis touring the mansion with this _twinkle _in his eye.

He's definitely thinking about stealing all these antiques.

Normally, he would let it go. All these antiques are humongous. There's no way for Travis to pocket these. But Will is an opportunist and Will sees a _big _opportunity right before him. So he banters some, jest a little, before going for the big guns.

"I'm going to hold your hand to make sure you don't steal."

And before Will could convinces him not to do it, he takes Travis's hands into his and waits.

No reaction. No tugging of his hand back. No scowling. No grimacing. No awkward chuckle. No blunt, "what are you doing?"

And Will presses his luck further by lacing their fingers together.

Again no reaction.

Except for Travis quipping he's ambidextrous which of course he would be. Hermes children always have the handy gifts.

Travis didn't say anything about their hands so Will won't either, instead continuing their conversation before Nico evidently had enough and scolds them to focus

Will untangles his hand from Travis and is careful to watch for any reactions. Sagging shoulders, wringing hands, itching the back of the head, anything to show relief.

There's none of that and Will wants to scream into oblivion. _He doesn't reciprocate. He doesn't pull away. Is he unsure or is he just oblivious?_

He's oblivious, imaginary Connor says in his mind. Just ask him out. You gotta be forward, Will.

"Travis, watch out!" Nico yells, pulling Travis back by the back of his shirt and saving him from falling into a pit. "You need to keep an eye out."

"Woah, thanks Nico. This is the sixth time you save my life! I owe you."

Nico rolls his eyes. "You can repay me by actually paying attention to your surroundings."

Affronted, Travis argues, "I do pay attention! I'm just not very good at picking up traps."

"Try harder."

"I am trying my very best."

The booby traps continue and Travis continues to be nearly killed by them. It wouldn't be concerning if not for the frequency. Sure, Travis can be a bit careless but not this careless. Never this careless. And after Travis blatantly trigger the door trap _even after_ they said it's booby trapped, he has to say something (2.5 ounces of nectar left…) and it lead to one of the most unbelievable admission ever.

Travis. Has. A. Crush.

On a real, living person.

An actual person.

An existent… tangible… person.

He has a chance.

He has a chance!

Travis is capable of romantic feelings!

But as quick as the exhilaration comes, it left.

Travis has a crush.

But no sane person admits they have a crush to the object of said crush.

So Travis has a crush. But it isn't him. He schools his features to show nothing but happiness for his friend. That is until another realization comes to him. Travis has a crush. But Travis is also remarkably gifted by his father. Enhanced agility… enhanced lie detection… enhanced lockpicking… plus his skill to hotwire any car, to pickpocket in any situation, to practically talk his way out of any punishment…

They're quite useful skills to have in life and Will can name dozens of campers who'll want that at their disposal.

So he asks, "What's his name? Which cabin? Do I know him? Who is he? How nice is he?"

Travis is taken aback by the questions and Will bites his lips. _Cool it, Will. Cool it._

"It doesn't even matter if I tell you," Travis says hesitantly, "He probably won't reciprocate my feelings."

Will hates himself for burst of relief that floods him. Unreciprocated want is painful. He should know with Travis sitting right there. He forces his face to be sympathetic, but it's so hard. And when Travis admits his crush has a crush on someone else, the whole idea tickles his innards. He has a crush. Travis has a crush. His crush's crush have a crush. Everybody has a crush and nobody is getting what they want.

That is, until Travis admits he'd 'assumed' his crush has a crush.

And the hope that blossoms in his chest is grinded to nothing with a steel boot.

Travis is not the best when it comes to recognizing romantic intentions. Connor said so. Annabeth said so. Even Chiron said so. Everybody that knew Travis since childhood said so.

And Will had pompously toss aside their statements because come on, how dense can a person be?

He literally asked Travis to be his patient to practice first aid on when he has siblings right there to ask instead. He asked him to help with his medical abbreviations memorization when Athena's children can probably help him better with that. He even asked for archery lessons even though everybody knows he already took thousands of lessons with Chiron and never got better.

No reaction. No questions. Just "Wow, you're incredible Will" or "You're so studious, Will" or "You're getting better!" which is a bold faced _lie_ because he definitely did not get better even when he put all his effort into shooting right.

Travis accepted his every request without a complaint.

And then when Kayla and Austin intervened without his consent and Travis's continued dismissal of all flirting, it was the confirmation that Will took as a sign for Travis being uninterested in any romantic relationships.

Gods, he's such an idiot.

Travis is just an oblivious person.

Travis is an oblivious person. And fuck, Connor's probably right about everything else too huh? Travis is bad at seeing love. Travis is bad knowing when people are in love. Travis is bad at seeing romance at all, according to Connor.

Which means there's a humongous chance Travis's crush may have a crush on him.

And Will couldn't help the crushing wave of despair washing over him.

Still.

There's a chance Travis might have a happy ending so Will sucks it up, straighten his back, and tells Travis to ask his crush out.

And that's exactly what happens a few minutes later.

Except Travis himself didn't confess but a magical talking bird.

* * *

"Travis! Travis, wait! Don't run out— and he's gone."

Nico comes back from the door exasperated. Will can hear Travis's sneakers echoing through the mansion until his remarkable agility carry him too far to be heard.

_I love Will. _

"Damn it. This is bad."

He likes me.

"Come on, Will, we need to follow after him."

He likes... me.

"Will?"

He … likes … _me_?

"Will, come on! We need to get him back."

And Nico shakes him by the shoulder. Will snaps back to attention to find Nico in front of him, staring with concern.

"Will, we need to go after him."

Right… right… Travis just ran out of here full speed. Hopefully, Travis is smart enough to run where they already set off all the traps but if he didn't…

Will doesn't even want to think about that.

And he doesn't because _Travis_ _likes_ _him_.

Unless he meant that in a platonic way. He loves Connor like a brother should… He admires Antman as the best superhero… And as far as he knows… cheeseburgers and poptarts aren't romantic interests of his.

Oh god.

What if this just confirmed it? What if Travis just sees him as a friend? Had he just been friendzoned?

"WILL!" And this time Nico did more than shake him by the shoulder, jabbing him in the stomach lightly.

Will winces. "Ow, that hurts."

"Stop lying," Nico says, scowling. "We need to go after him."

Then Nico runs out of the room and Will follows him. Will listen for the telltale sign of shoes, of Travis's blabbering, of Ms. Fluffy life-changing chirps, but he hears none of that. And when they retrace their steps back to the entrance, Travis is nowhere to be seen which means he's somewhere in this booby trapped mansion.

Oh no. _Oh_ no.

"Let's split up," Nico says, hands digging inside his pockets. "I'll search the east wing. You search the west. You have nectar and drachma on you?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, we'll IM each other if we find him."

Will snags Nico by his sleeve before he could leave. He needs a second opinion, someone down to Earth and honest. He can't search with this on his mind. "Nico, do you think Travis only sees me as a friend?"

He never seen Nico look so done.

"Will, he ran out of here like Mrs O. Leary was chasing him. What does that tell you?"

* * *

The bird that changed his life for the better is back to change it some more! He comes across Ms. Fluffy in the west wing in a narrow corridor. She insistently tugs on the strands of his hair and he follows her to a large ballroom with a high ceiling. Ms. Fluffy perches on his shoulder and sort her feathers.

"Travis?" he calls out hesitantly.

No response.

"Travis? You here?"

Still no answer.

Ms. Fluffy coos and Will scowls at her. "Ms. Fluffy, I don't have time for sightseeing. I need to find Travis. Gods probably know he got into a trap or something."

Ms Fluffy's hackles rise in indignation and she flies to the center of the room with a pitfall. His stomach fell when he sees it's triggered amongst all the untriggered traps.

He walks to the edge, peers down into the dark pit, and prays to his dad that the dark shape he sees isn't Travis.

"Travis? Is that you?"

To his dismay, a voice flits from the bottom. "Will… hey… how you been?"

"Travis hold on. I'm coming."

Travis is down there. He sounds awful. It's a 30 feet drop… broken bones are possible if he landed wrong. Shit. Will reach into his backpack to pull out some rope. He ties it a sofa, tests the strength once, before descending down to the pit

Travis is on his right side, elbows propping him up. The position he's in seems weird and Will finds out why when his eyes zero in the metal spike protruding from his calf.

The barbs are laced with poison of course. Of course it has to be. There's no way the universe couldn't let it be a simple fix. The poison seems to be taking effect already. Travis face is red and he's panting, with the very barest of shivers running up and down his back.

Will kneels by the wound and shines a flashlight on it.

It's bad. Really bad. Probably worth the rest of nectar in Travis's godly food allowance.

His fingers accidentally graze the thigh too roughly and he winces when Travis whimpers in pain.

This is going to hurt big time.

None of this is better by Ms Fluffy perching on his shoulder and revealing what he loves.

Steak. Studying. Those mean nothing. But blue? Brown? Antman?

As long as Ms. fluffy don't start sprouting "I love blue because it's the color of Travis's eyes" or "I love brown because Travis's hair is brown" or god forbid, "I love Antman because I originally look the man up to see what kind of person Travis likes and ended up actually liking the character because of his striking resemblance to the object of my crush." As long as Ms. Fluffy doesn't say _any _of that, there won't be a problem.

(_Be forward, Will. You gotta be forward_)

But of course the bird don't listen. Of course the world likes kicking him in the gut. First with his poor assumption that Travis isn't interested and now by ruining the confession he has planned.

Because as soon as Will took back the bottle of nectar (emptied), as soon as Will manage to stop Travis's blabbering about his new career as a street magician, as soon as Will just barely finish explaining his motives, as soon as he did all that the bird said it.

The _fucking_ bird said it.

"_I love Travis._"

* * *

"GO GET, NICO!" Will roars, dropping Travis's face to wave at the bird still perched on his head.

Ms. Fluffy takes off immediately without backtalk.

Good.

He wouldn't know what he would have done if Ms. Fluffy stayed to sprout some more secrets.

Will looks back to Travis, face still infuriatingly devoid of emotion.

Until the slightest furrow of eyebrows and oh god. Will steels himself for being friendzoned. But Travis only whisper, "What?"

Is that shock? Disgust? The false realization that they mutually see each as 'friends' and only friends?

"Ha… haha… did I hear that right? Did Ms. Fluffy said you … you like me?"

No, not shock. Not disgust. Just confusion. Will takes a deep breath and with Connor talking in his mind ("be forward. Just be forward and stop assuming"), he holds Travis's hand with both of his and squeezes once. "Yeah. I like you. Like, like-like you. Like, 'I-want-to-go-out-with-you' like you."

Red creeps along his cheeks and climbs to his ears and Will thinks that's a great sign. But then he takes a closer look and crap.

He can see it. In the eyes. The skin. The beginning of nectar overdose.

Glazed focus, feverish skin, a soon to come uncontrollable trembling, and a warmth that'll feel like it's burning him away from the inside.

Shit.

Will was sure of Travis's maximum intake. Did he consume some ambrosia or nectar before this? Damn it. He should have asked first. He should have checked before saying to drink it all. Shit. He messed up like he always does. They need to find a bathtub right away and fill it with lukewarm water. Ah, he'll IM Nico to do that for him.

Will drops his hands but Travis snuck his back in and blurts, "Really? You're not pulling my leg? You're not lying to me? You're not feeling sorry for me? You're not saying that to make me feel better? You're not kidding? You're not—" Travis swallows, and Will can see _anxiety_ in those blue eyes. "You're not… disgusted?"

Will wrinkles his nose at the way Travis said it. "Disgusted? Why would I be disgusted?"

There isn't even a second pause. "Because I'm a thief. I like to steal. I like to break into stores. I'm dishonest. I lie without a reason to. I'm not a good person. You deserve so much better than someone like me."

Will didn't hesitate in saying, "You're wrong."

"But it's true," Travis pouts, "You're literally like Jesus and I'm just a lowly—"

"You're wrong," Will says again, fist clenching. "You're wrong and I'm going to need you to stop putting yourself down like this because it's not like you."

Travis shakes his head. "I—"

And because Will is bossy. He's bullminded. He's a touchy-touchy kind of person, he cups Travis's face in his hands (noting worriedly how warm it feels), tilts it up and squeeze them lightly. "I. Like. You. You're funny. You're sweet. You're talented. Sure, you have bad qualities. Everybody has them. I have them too. I can be incredibly insensitive. I don't understand personal bubbles. But people change. People can become better."

Travis's head lowers and his shoulders shake, and oh boy, Will braces himself for crying but no, when Will places his hand on the back the skin feels burning hot even through the shirt.

Oh, that's right. The nectar overdose.

"We will continue this conversation when you're not in pain. Can you stand?"

Travis only slinks forward and Will catches him across the chest.

_Ok. Alright. Stay calm, Will. You trained for this. Don't panic. _

First things first, lower the fever. Will chants a hymn to cool the burning. It won't be enough to cool it entirely, but it's enough till Will can find the nearest bathtub. He slides Travis onto his back, wincing at the unbearable heat bearing down on him. He stands and groans at the weight before collapsing back down to the ground. He can't carry Travis by himself.

Wiping out his water bottle, he showers the air with water and toss his drachma into the rainbow.

"Let me talk to Nico di Angelo in this building, please, Iris."

And as he waits for the connection to go through, he prays to his dad for everything to turn out okay.

_Don't combust into flames, Travis. Connor will kill me._

* * *

**Thanks for reading! **


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